Analyzing and refuting the inaccuracies lodged against the lgbt community by religious conservative organizations. Lies in the name of God are still lies.

Tuesday, June 03, 2014

While family accepts transgender child, ignorant folks just can't handle it

Excellent video, excellent family. More like them are needed:

Of course, according to Equality Matters, SOME people (such as Fox News' Keith Ablow) are being nasty about the situation:

“From a personal, not a professional standpoint, were my
daughter to assert that she were a boy, not a girl, there is no chance
we would be headed to a surgeon’s office without a trial of
anti-psychotic medication,”

Equality Matters points out that Ablow has no expertise in sexuality issues. Equality Matters also points out:

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, gender identity is usually established by the age of four. Medical
professionals note that denying medical treatment to transgender
children can be harmful; Dr. Norman Spack of Children’s Hospital Boston,
for instance, states that many children who don’t receive treatment
resort to self-mutilation in
an attempt to change their anatomies. According to Spack, the earlier
children deemed to need treatment start receiving it, the easier of a
time they'll have passing as the gender with which they identify and the
less likely they'll be to require more radical treatments later in
life.

The term expert depends on who is making the observation. In my opinion, Dr. Albow is the expert. How could anyone logically believe a four year old child can make a decision such as this one. My daughter until the age of seven would act like a cat all day long everyday....my wife and I didn't begin treating her like an animal. Plus, when I was a little boy, I decided I wanted to be a ninja, my parents didn't buy me a sword....they groomed me to be a wall st investment banker. Not one child at the age of four can make a choice like this....that's why we raise children and don't put them in charge of Fortune 500 companies. This issue comes down to poor parental guidance, and I bet these parents are doing this to somehow impress people by showing them how progressive they are to their liberal friends or they're seeking some sort if fame....the problem is that it's coming at the sacrifice of their daughter.

So you prefer the word of one person who has no expertise in the matter against an entire organization full of members who HAVE studied the matter. Based on the rest of your statement, I would say that you have a personal bias which precludes you from making a sound judgement in this matter. I for one am sticking with the group with the experience rather than the one guy who has none.

Antipsychotic medications have serious side effects which may be permanent, and should only be prescribed to people who are actually suffering a psychotic break. AFAIK there is no evidence that antipsychotics change a person's gender identity.

Actually it's pure logic that shows a 4 year old can determine their gender. Also, equating gender identity with playing pretend is insulting. For one thing, the theorys of psycho sexual development show that 4 years old is about the time when children begin to identify with their gender. At this time there is no case of a child's identifying gender from this age not being the gender they identify with as an adult, because psychological gender is set at birth and like many other aspects of one's sense of self is not fully realized until later, in this case between the ages of 4 and 7.

The real truth is this doesn't pass. At best if not treated the child will only consider suicide at some point in their life. At worst they will kill them self before the end of highschool. So this is a bit like climate change. You can say you don't believe it, but in the end it will kill your children if you don't.

The reality is, a child can go through a phase where they pretend to be an animal, they don't go through phases where they want to change their gender. The emotional trauma ignoring such things is life threatening, and no parent has the right to ignore something that can kill there child for the sake of image.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 45-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.